


Homecoming

by FountainsOfSilver



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Clumsy Sex, Drunk Sex, Drunken Confessions, Drunken Flirting, Drunken Kissing, Dwarf Courting, Dwarf Culture & Customs, Dwarf Women, Everybody Lives, F/M, Fluff, Homecoming, Homesickness, Humor, Long lost love, Overprotective Dwarves, Romance, Sex, Smut, one - Freeform, post-BotFA
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 01:31:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14321601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FountainsOfSilver/pseuds/FountainsOfSilver
Summary: After the Battle of Five Armies, Thorin regains what he thought was long lost.A friend gave me the first paragraph as a prompt, Homecoming is the result.





	Homecoming

**Author's Note:**

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> 
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/fountainsofsilver

_Thorin found her alone and he wasn’t going to waste it. He walked up to her from behind. She was too intent on her drawing to know he was there._

His hand reached out to touch her long fire-gold hair, but he heard a sound in the corridor and quickly withdrew to the shadows. She must have heard the sound and finally awakened from her artistry to look up.

“Gigi?” the voice asked.

“Balin? Is that you?!” She jumped up from the desk in the library and ran to throw her arms around his neck.

Balin laughed and begged her to release him. “I’m too old for such treatment, Gigi!”

“Oh please don’t say that. We’re nearly the same age!” She laughed.

He looked into the bright, verdant eyes of the dwarrowdam. “And yet you haven’t changed a day.” Balin smiled as he looked at her. “Not one day, except maybe to become more beautiful.”

“The lighting in here is dim and maybe your eyes are starting to go, Balin.” She teased.

“Nonsense. I feel young to see you again.” He replied.

“And I feel overjoyed to see you.” She answered and they hugged again.

Thorin frowned in the shadows. He always thought Dwalin might end up his rival for this one as they were close to the same age, but she had always looked up to Balin. Their interests were much the same and their friendship had been strong. Might it turn into something more now that Erebor was reclaimed?

Speaking of Dwalin, he came rushing in calling for his brother. “What’s this you found, Balin? No wonder you leave the celebration to have such a pretty— Gigi?” She had only to smile at him and he recognized her for certain and lifted her up in his arms and spun her around. “You’re alive!”

“I should hope so!” She laughed. Dwalin had clearly emptied the better part of a keg by himself as he stumbled and hugged her some more. “After the beast cleared out the mountain, my brother, Togi and I found ourselves still inside. We waited a few days and managed to sneak out and make our way to Iron Hills. Others weren’t so lucky. We lost the rest of our family…”

“Aye, lassie.” Balin said remembering well. “We lost much of our kin too. We had nought but our father left and lost him to the orcs.”

“I remember Togi.” Dwalin frowned. “He kept every lad well away from you.”

Thorin remembered Togi well. He’d been Dwalin’s size before the rest of them were full grown and he put a healthy fear of pain into Thorin on several occasions. He thought for sure he would die by Togi’s axe or even bare hands before he could get close enough to speak to his sister.

“Well, he’s busy enough with a daughter of his own. She’s a pretty little lass and it takes Togi and her two brothers to keep all the lads away.” She laughed. “Why have the two of you left the celebration?”

“Just wanted to walk the corridors and reminisce a little.” Balin said, though truthfully he had come looking for Thorin. His friend and king should be at the celebration and he had worried over why he might have wandered off.

“I came to drag this one back.” Dwalin said thumbing at his brother. “The better question is, why are you not there?”

The brothers noticed she blushed even in the dim light of the library. “I am working on a gift for our king’s coronation.”

“What is it?” Dwalin asked playfully skirting around her to peek at her sketchbook.

“Here now, it’s not finished and it’s not quite right…” Gigi stammered. “Please, I’m going to end up drawing another so don’t waste your time.”

Dwalin just looked at the picture, a sober grin on his face. He had intended to tease her, but could not bring himself to do it. Balin glanced at it and smiled knowingly. “I think it is a fine start.” Balin said. “It seems as though something is missing though.”

Gigi nervously took the sketchbook back from Dwalin and looked at it. “You’re right, but I cannot figure out what it could possibly be…” She just stood there staring at the portrait for a long moment.

Balin and Dwalin grinned at each other. “We should be getting back to the celebration. You’ll join us later, won’t you?”

“This celebration will drag out into weeks of cycles of drunkenness and hangovers, I’m sure I can’t miss some part of it.” Gigi laughed and hugged the two brothers before they left. She watched them disappear down the hallway and couldn’t help but turn back to the picture she was working on. Something was missing. She rested her head on her arm and stared at the portrait rubbing the back of her neck.  
  
She felt something brush her hand and started at the touch. She nearly fell from the chair when she realized it was someone’s hand. “OH! Thorin! I mean, Your Majesty! You startled me. She scooped up her sketchbook and put it behind her back, taking several steps backward so she could bow to him, but he was too close to do so properly and she kept stepping back. He kept stepping forward until he finally had her against a wall and held her upper arms so she would stop bowing to him.  
  
“Don’t. Please don’t bow to me.” He managed at long last. His head was spinning from all the alcohol he had so far or was it from her proximity? “Don’t call me that.”  
  
“Forgive me, my King.” She tried to bow again, but he was against her now and his hand over her mouth.  
  
“No. Not that either.” He whispered.

His breath was thick with drink, but it was not unpleasant. If anything it made her feel a bit dizzy herself. Though she thought it had more to do with the intoxicating shade of blue in his eyes.  
  
“I’ve been a fool.” He took her hands in his and held them against the wall over her head, her sketchbook having fallen to their feet. Thorin’s face nuzzled against her neck.

His body was pressed hard against hers and Gigi found it difficult to manage much more than a shaky breath. What was happening? “My Lord, can I help you to your chambers?”

Thorin pulled away from her, but still gripped her wrists pulling her roughly to him. “AYE.”  
  
The look in his striking blue eyes told her that was perhaps not the right thing to offer. “I mean… It seems like you need to go to bed…”  
  
“Aye!” He growled.  
  
“No.” She whispered, her breath leaving her at his steady gaze. “What I mean is… I mean…” Mahal! His eyes had always had this affect on her. She couldn’t look into them without forgetting her every purpose and the words in her brain were all a jumble. “I…”  
  
“Aye?” He purred.

The Maker couldn’t help her now. Her eyelashes fluttered as she tried to remember important things like how to breathe, how to stand. “My picture is missing something.”  
  
“Aye.” He whispered. “It is.”

She blushed deeply and struggled to stand even though she already was. She broke eye contact with him and did everything she could to keep from getting pulled back in. “You saw it?! It’s supposed to be a surprise.”  
  
“You’ve already given me my surprise.” Thorin whispered, not letting her sidestep him. His hands slid down from her wrists to her arms, and then held her shoulders against the wall. “Oh Gigi. I thought I had lost you all those years ago…”  
  
She laughed nervously. “Lost me? Who am I to lose? You didn’t even know who I was.”  
  
Thorin’s hands slid from her shoulders alongside her neck and into her hair. He held her pinned with his body while his fingers ran through her hair. She could feel his hot, panting breath alongside her neck and in her ear and felt like she was going to melt.  
  
“I’ve always known you.” His hands having finished the roving and stroking of her hair returned to hold the nape of her neck while he began kissing her cheek. “I have not lost you at all, have I?”  
  
“I’m…. Still alive…” Gigi answered confusedly. He was strangely excited for her to be alive. He had just come through a long ordeal and he was drunk from celebrating. He was drunk and disoriented. She couldn’t help but smile. She had felt such a relief knowing he was still alive too.  
  
“Alive and no braids in your hair…” He murmured and his kisses trailed down her neck becoming more insistent.

It slowly began to dawn on her his intent. Oh this would not do. He was drunk and would wake to regret it tomorrow if she let him continue. “You said you knew what was missing from the portrait. Please tell me so I might fix it.” She squirmed to get away.

“You know what it is.” Thorin whispered as her body wriggled against his. Kissing was not enough. He wanted to taste her. His tongue traversed up her neck and he sucked on her earlobe.  
  
“Ohhhh…” Gigi felt weak. She was making no headway in her squirming except in getting him more aggressive with her. “No. No, please.” She panted.  
  
“Aye.” He insisted.  
  
Mahal, but he would only say aye! “What’s missing?” She begged attempting again to change the subject.  
  
He took her hand and pressed it tightly over his engorged length. “This.” He whispered in her ear. “In this.” He cupped her sex in his other hot hand.  
  
Her legs did go out from under her at that and she found herself able to somehow scramble out of his grasp, but just as soon as she had, he grabbed her around the waist from behind.  
  
“That’s not what I meant! That’s not at all what I meant!” Gigi rushed to clarify.  
  
“It’s precisely what is missing.” Thorin insisted.  
  
“No. I meant in the picture.” She nodded hoping he would remember what they had been talking about.  
  
“That’s what I mean.” He replied, his breath tickling the back of her ear.  
  
“It’s just a portrait! I don’t know what kind of picture you think I was going to draw for you, Your Majesty.”  
  
“I don’t like that. I don’t like that coming from you at all.”  
  
“I’m sorry, but I think once the drink has left you, you’ll probably not be commissioning such an artwork.”  
  
Thorin laughed. “You misunderstand. The dwarf in that picture is indeed missing something. The same thing this dwarf holding you now has been missing.” His voice lowered. “The same thing the lady in my arms has been missing.” He turned her to him. “Look into my eyes. You see it. You can see it because you recognize what is missing in me. You made Balin and Dwalin see it too. They saw instantly that you know me to the depth of my being.”  
  
Looking into his eyes always frightened her. It made a wild feeling within her heart that she did her best to tame or at the very best, keep caged.  
  
“You know me.” He pleaded with her to understand what she already knew.  
  
Gigi shook her head slowly. “We’ve never even been introduced. I’ve only been in the same room with you or anywhere near you, less than a dozen times.”  
  
“Eleven.” Thorin smiled at her. He knew she was aware of the exact number of times they had been near to each other just as he did. “Eleven times I had to look into your eyes from across a room or through a crowd and eleven times I knew I was missing something I had never even known to miss. Gigi… you are my One.”  
  
She started to tell him he was drunk and very confused, that this was just the excitement of the celebration, relief over a completed quest and a battle won, that she was just conveniently the only female in Erebor at this moment, but she didn’t want to say those things. She didn’t want those things to be true. She didn’t want to diminish what he was confessing. She wanted only this thing he was telling her now to be the truth.  
  
“Yes. I am drunk.” He admitted as if reading her mind. “But Gigi, you are my One. I have known it from the first time I saw you.”  
  
“We were too young—”  
  
He cut her off, putting his fingers against her lips again. He nodded. “We were too young to do anything. Togi would have beaten me to an unrecognizable pulp even being a prince.” They both laughed. He nuzzled against her ear and whispered, “But soon I will be a King with an army at my call. Your brother can’t take the entirety of Erebor on.”  
  
Gigi giggled at his whispered teasing in her ear and a happiness filled her to feel his smile in his voice and against her cheek.  
  
Then she felt his demeanor change. “Not before I can take you for my own…” He held her breathtakingly tight. “We’re not too young now.” Thorin said. “I may have waited to reclaim Erebor for over 170 years, but I am not a patient dwarf. I will not wait another minute. Say it.” He commanded. “Say it and put an end to my suffering.”  
  
He loosened his grip so he could look at the eyes that had enchanted him almost 200 years ago, the eyes he thought he would never look into again. His future was in the eternal Spring of her eyes. She took a deep breath. “Thorin. You are my One.”  
  
He scooped her up in his arms and carried her out of the library.  
  
“What are you doing?” Gigi cried.  
  
“You said you would escort me to my chambers.” He answered.  
  
“I meant… I…” She blushed and nodded.  
  
Thorin kicked open the door and found several of Dain’s dwarves within. “These aren’t my chambers.”  
  
“No, they’re not laddie.” The dwarves laughed and several cheered as he strode out. Some of them were asking each other if that wasn’t King Thorin and some hollered out as he went down the hall inquiring if he didn’t need a witness.  
  
“NO! I know what I’m doing!” Thorin barked and then after kicking open several other wrong doors he added under his breath, “I just don’t know where I am.” After having kicked open Oin and Gloin’s chambers and then Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur’s, Thorin reluctantly wished he had just taken her into the one empty room he had found earlier, though he could not recall where that was now. “I forgot this place is a labyrinth.” He cursed.  
  
“ONGLE!” Fili and Kili stumbled along more drunkenly than Thorin, looking like they were barely supporting each other.  
  
“Thank the Maker.” Thorin swore under his breath. “Lads, lead us to the halls of our kin.”  
  
“Umcles. We hope you know it. We never here before have been.” Kili slurred and then lurched forward to see what Thorin was carrying. “Oooh, pretty. There are damdwarrow… damrowdwarfs… erg girls here, Fili! D’you know there were girls?!”  
  
“Uncrle you been hidin’ the girls from us?” Fili asked, stumbling backward when his brother released him and then forward to look closer. “So pretty!”  
  
“Lashes with no mushtashes!” Kili said with wide eyes. “Fee, d’you know they came thish way?!” Kili spun his head around and collided with Fili’s. “No beardsh!”  
  
Fili added pinching her cheeks and then rubbing her face, “Her skin’s niiiiice…”  
  
Share, Umcles, share.” Kili said, taking her hand and putting wet kisses all over it.  
  
“YEAH!” Fili said nearly falling backward to look up at Thorin. “You make me share with this brother everything. If you share with me I will share with this Kili. On my honor. I am a good dwarf.”  
  
“I will do no such thing!” Thorin said, pulling her away and causing his nephews to fall on top of each other. “I’m her One.”  
  
“One… third…? Fili offered hopefully.  
  
“ONE.” Thorin grumbled.  
  
“One half.” Fili bartered. “Tha’s my final offer. I don’ haveta share with this Kili at all. I’s okay, I’s okay.”  
  
Thorin growled and stepped over them both. They had been marinating in the ancient casks of Erebor’s finest (and strongest) and would be of no help. Kili grabbed his ankle crying over his loss of the share of this beardless female and that his brother would so quickly deny him. Thorin was furious at himself for not remembering his own keep. He would just tell the next dwarves in some hall to evacuate for the evening, except things looked familiar down this way, the direction Gigi directed him to go.  
  
The great doors were closed. Some servant had probably died to in his last minutes closing the doors to Durin’s Hall so the dragon wouldn’t wander in. Thorin put Gigi down and opened the door. Without looking at her he held his hand out knowing she would take it and reclaimed his ancestors’ halls.  
  
Fili and Kili found their uncle on his knees weeping just inside the door. The pretty dwarrowdam knelt beside him only holding him and letting him cry. They had never seen their uncle so moved and it sobered them somewhat as they looked all around them at this great silent hall.  
  
“Move nothing.” She said quietly, but her gentle voice carried clearly. “Not just yet. It is as my father’s halls. Everything is exactly where we left it that morning. The cups on the table are where our lost kin set them. The books are still left open to that place they were reading, waiting for them to come home and finish the tale at the end of the day. This memory that has been like a dream to us is now vivid as if it were only this morning.” She had tears in her eyes. “It was this way for me as well.”  
  
Thorin looked up at her. She knew him. She knew this feeling that he felt because she felt it too. She stroked his face and hair and he felt comfort to be home again. Before it had only been emptiness for none of those familiar voices would fill these halls again.  
  
“The only thing missing is the people, but you have family yet to fill these great halls.” She said softly as she stroked his hair back from his face.  
  
Thorin smiled at her. This was how it was when you were with your One. They knew the heart of what you were feeling. No wonder his father had been so lost after losing his mother, so terribly fragile that the death of his own father sent him into madness. And had the dragon sickness not claimed his grandfather only after his grandmother’s death? If the line of Durin was strong, it was due to the love of their mates.  
  
“Do you remember that day as clearly as I?” She asked holding out her hands to help him to his feet.  
  
Thorin rose to his feet nodding. “I do.”  
  
“It was a beautiful morning. The skies were as blue as your eyes. I wanted to go out to see them, but I had gotten in an argument with my parents. They didn’t want me to go out, but they had kept me inside for months. Togi had told them…” She blushed. “He told them that he suspected some young dwarf lord had taken an interest in me and that he thought my eyes lingered a little too long on him as well.”  
  
“Was it true?” Thorin asked, his voice low taking her face in his hands. “Did your eyes linger upon him?”  
  
“If he caught my gaze, I could not look away…” She breathed looking into Thorin’s eyes.  
  
“Who is this dwarf that would take our umcle’s One?” Kili slurred and punched his fist into his hand.  
  
“We’ll teach him the lesson about lookin’ at our One!” Fili agreed.  
  
Thorin put his forehead against hers and laughed. “Let us get these dwarflings to bed.”  
  
“Aye, let’s!” Fili purred as he took Gigi’s hand.  
  
As Thorin had her other hand, Kili put his hands on her shoulders and stumbled along behind, his large feet stepping on her heels until Thorin grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and pulled him around to walk alongside him, their arms around each other affectionately.  
  
“Here is the chamber of your mother, Frerin, and mine.” Thorin told his nephews. “Here you will sleep in Erebor.” Above the large bed the three siblings had shared was a portrait of all three of them many decades younger than Fili and Kili were.  
  
“Kee! It’s you!” Fili said stumbling forward to look at the portrait more closely.  
  
“Your brother looks almost exactly as mine did.” Thorin said quietly to Fili. Except for the blue eyes and the thicker beard, the portrait could have been of Kili.  
  
“No wonder everyone likes Kee better.” Fili said staring at the painting and then slowly turning back to look at them.  
  
“You don’t truly think that, do you?” Thorin said regretfully. He had never meant either of his nephews to feel less loved than the other. “If Kili got any more attention from us it was because he is so reckless and foolhardy like an overgrown pup.” He looked down to see that Kili was kneeling before Gigi with her hand in his licking it. Thorin let out a heavy sigh and rolled his eyes. “You were ever the more sensible one, Fili, and did not need constant supervision.” Thorin toed Kili off Gigi with his boot and the dwarf rolled back onto the floor.  
  
“I don’t look like any of our kin.” Fili said sadly.  
  
“Oh that’s not true.” Gigi said, going to him. “Your eyes are that breathtaking Durin blue.”  
  
“And except for your eyes, you look exactly like your father.” Thorin added, but Fili wasn’t listening to him. He grabbed Gigi behind her neck and waist and pulled himself to her to kiss her deeply. Thorin growled, “I haven’t even done that yet!” And yanked Fili off of her.  
  
“You should…” Fili said with a glazed look in his eyes. “It’s the best…”  
  
“Grrr… Get to bed. Sleep it off.” Thorin looked at Kili laughing on the floor. “You too!”  
  
Gigi just stood there with a surprised expression and he grabbed her and pulled her to the door. “MINE!” He roared in no uncertain terms and took her into the adjoining room that had belonged to his father and mother. He held her close there in the dark for many long moments with no sound between them save the sound of their hearts and breath.  
  
“My Love, I have mourned your loss for so many years.” Thorin finally managed.  
  
“I am here with you now, Thorin. Please tell me you will never leave me behind again.” She whispered and he gripped her tighter.  
  
“I will keep you close. We won’t be parted no matter what evils descend upon Erebor. How did you get here? The battle ended only three days ago.” He asked.  
  
“I overheard someone telling my brother that you had returned, the dragon was gone, and you had called the dwarrow of Iron Hills to your aid. I followed the army. I am a dwarf of Erebor and I thought it my duty to come at my king’s call, but…” Gigi squeezed him. “Honestly, I just had to see you again. I couldn’t wait another minute.”  
  
“I can barely move from indecision.” Thorin confessed. “I would take you now and make you mine as soon as possible so that we would not miss another moment together, but I also wish to linger over loving you. Ah, so much time lost!”  
  
“I fear my brother will come in any minute and put an end to you.” Gigi laughed. “Please, linger later.”  
  
With her permission, Thorin did not hold back. His kisses rained down roughly on her in the dark. She was just as eager for him and she gripped his hair and held his mouth to hers. Their breathy pants and moans filled the room as they fumbled with each other’s clothes while pressing to maintain their kiss.  
  
They made a clumsy dance to the bed each trying to not end the kiss while kicking off boots and tugging at clothes. Thorin gave up and tossed her upon the bed and hastily removed his own clothing. Gigi lay there in the dark trying to let her eyes adjust and only hearing the rustling and flinging of Thorin’s clothing onto the floor as he cursed at himself. She giggled, but soon he was upon her feeling blindly to remove hers as well.  
  
Oh! She should have done that while he was undressing, but now she couldn’t help but laugh as he struggled to figure out how it all worked in the dark. She heard his low, lusty laugh and thought she couldn’t have heard a more delightful sound, until in that same tone dripping with desire he commanded, “Help me.” She could only comply and unfastened everything as fast as her trembling fingers could manage.  
  
Then he was all up on her, his lips skimming here, kissing there, while his hands tripped across her flesh touching her everywhere. She could not help but let out a sound somewhere between a sigh and a cry of relief. Every secret desire was nothing to this. He had returned to Erebor and proclaimed her as his One and now her senses were filled with him: the feel of his rough hands and silky beard, the deep moans echoing her want, the taste of his lips upon hers with whiskey and rum and whatever other casks of alcohol the dwarves had found, and that earthy dwarvish scent that made her nose tingle, but she could see nothing. She didn’t need to, because burned into her memory was the fire held behind those icy blue eyes. It was probably for the best she couldn’t see him. She didn’t think she could take that too. Though not considered very attractive by dwarven standards, he suited her aesthetic of handsome ideally because he was her One. He was designed to be attractive to her.  
  
Thorin was was equally dizzied by the onslaught of sensations of her: her soft lips and skin like silk no matter where he touched her, her little sounds of pleasure sent tremors of exhilaration along his shaft, her scent was sweet and like to drove him mad making him want to taste her, and finding one of her hard nipples on her pert breast he licked and sucked at that sweetness causing her body to arc beneath him and more erotic cries to leave her making his cock jerk and drip in anticipation. He could not see her, but every minute they were within proximity he had studied her and now his hands worked as his eyes, memorizing every curve. He moaned at the beauty of her, his One, designed by Mahal for him.  
  
Thorin felt her tremble and shake and heard a sob escape her. With great worry he ceased his sensual exploration of her and pulled himself alongside her. “Have I hurt your, my Love?”  
  
“N-no…” Gigi managed.  
  
“I have offended you with my rough and hasty treatment.” He concluded.  
  
“Mahal, no! Thorin… Thorin…” She held herself close to him even as her body was wracked with sobs and she began to laugh. “I have never been so happy in my life. I’m so happy I can’t help but to cry. I’ve missed kisses and longed for a touch I’ve never known. Ah, but you’ve returned and this is beyond my imaginings! If this is your idea of hasty, I will most definitely look forward to the lingering.”  
  
“I can linger a bit more if that is your desire,” He replied seductively, his hand slowly gliding up to her face to wipe away the tears on her smooth skin with a rough thumb.  
  
“If I am crying and laughing like a mad dwarf, I cannot imagine what more would do to me. Please, my body trembles out of my control for want of you. For need of you… Please, don’t make me wait!”

“Thank the Maker…” Thorin growled pulling himself on top of her, “…for I did not think I could bear another minute, amrâlimê. I ache to be with you. I need you too.” He pushed himself against her until the tip of him found the right angle and pressed into her tight hold, both gasping at the perfection of it.  
  
Gigi wrapped her legs around him. “Oh Thorin…”  
  
He groaned and began moving in and out, his speed and depth increasing with each thrust.  
  
“Thorin… give me all of you!” She begged and he slammed into her hard.  
  
“Like that?” He asked moving in and out cautiously as before.  
  
“YES! Deeper!” And he returned to pushing himself all the way in, though held back his intensity for fear of having hurt her. “Nnn… harder! Please…!” She begged.  
  
It was what he wanted to and he did not hold back, filling her with his thick length, his fur grazing her pleasure with every hard thrust and grinding against her. He felt her fingernails dig into his shoulders and she cried out, a pulse tightening along his shaft and grasping to pull his own orgasm from him as he moaned and growled as his cock emptied into her hard.  
  
Thorin lay there panting on her chest, listening to their heartbeats synchronizing rhythm and surprised at the emotions that wracked his body with utter joy at that little unexpected detail. Never in his life had he… He held her tight and breathed. “My One… My One… We two are one.”  
  
“Thorin… Men lananubukhs menu, Thorin.”

Aye, he thought for his throat choked and no words would come. Aye, I love you too.  
  
Thorin woke slowly the next morning. This was not at all typical of him as in the past sleep had just been something to do between the more productive waking hours. He usually got up the instant his body realized sleep was ending. But he had been having a good dream that he didn’t want to leave and he felt arms around him and warmth to his bones that sighed ‘linger a little longer”. He was in no hurry to leave it.  
  
Still, his eyes slowly opened to verify his heart’s forge was still beside him. Already she was tuned in to him so well that she stirred a little in her sleep and smiled to feel his attention upon her. Gigi snuggled close to his chest. He would let her sleep a little longer then he would make love to her for days. Certainly he wouldn’t be missed in the drunken revelry that would go on for weeks. Except…  
  
She slid back away from him and Thorin wearily sat up on his elbows to see that Fili had pulled her back into his arms as he cradled her from behind. He frowned. When had the lad crawled into bed with them? He felt something behind him and turned to see Kili there curled up like a pill bug.  
  
“You indulge the lads, Thorin.” Balin said, leaving off the implied “too much” for it would not do to correct a King.  
  
Thorin sat up fully to see he was less alone with his beloved than he had originally thought. Bofur was stoking the fire into a good blaze and several of the company were dozing propped up against the wall. He supposed they did leave the door wide open and in dwarven culture that was as good as an invitation to come in.  
  
“The bedroom door was not open to them.” He said in response. Fili and Kili must have come in and left it open to the others as well. Though he loved his nephews he could hardly be described as an indulgent uncle. He certainly wasn’t doting in the manner Dori inflicted upon his brothers.  
  
“Good. He’s awake.” Oin said as he unpacked his bag and readied himself to inspect Thorin’s injuries. He motioned his King to the edge of the bed. Gigi moved into the warmth he left in his wake and both Fili and Kili wriggled in their sleep to cuddle up alongside her. Thorin just shook his head and let Oin unwrap his bandages.  
  
“Do you plan on goin’ against all our traditions, lad?” Gloin grumped disapprovingly. This was just not how things were done. Thorin hadn’t even put a braid in her hair before taking her to bed.

Thorin looked at him out of the corner of his eyes while his brother inspected and cleaned his wounds. “I thought my One was lost to me forever. For over 170 years I thought this and I have been silent over that greatest of sufferings and you know all others.”  
  
Indeed Thorin had suffered most greatly. He had lost almost all of his family, his home, forced to lead a lost people fighting across the wastelands, subjected to having to bow and scrape so his people would have food to survive, all while he was still considered a dwarfling. Those things alone would have been enough to make any succumb to the Dragon Sickness, but Thorin had thought he lost his One too and still managed to pull himself through for his people. Gloin bowed his head.  
  
“I will not judge your joy when your One is returned to your side after so short a time, Gloin.” Thorin said quietly.

Gloin lowered his head further. It was true, he had still been within view of the Blue Mountains when he started feeling like he would have to turn back to his wife. It was only the threat of her throwing their finest dishes at his head for giving up such an opportunity and the opportunity itself that kept him going. He had already begun cleaning the coins of his share and putting them in his chambers in preparation to make love to her in all their gold the moment she arrived. He could not comprehend the loss that Thorin must have felt for so long, nor understood the depth of how his wife must have worried for his safety. Thorin may be impetuous, but he would make all right in the end. It was not his place to approve or disapprove. “Forgive me, my King.”  
  
Thorin pat his arm and smiled at him. “That’s no way to talk to a friend. I don’t think I will like to hear any of you trading your friendship with me for a King.”  
  
Balin could see, they all could for that matter, that the deep torment that Thorin bore in silence within his eyes was gone to be replaced with a generous warmth. But Balin had to turn away, his eyes stinging with tears of happiness for he was the only one in the room who recalled Thorin’s eyes before the sack of Erebor and before he inherited the weight of leadership and so much loss.  
  
“Need to check the lads.” Oin grunted. He handed Thorin the fur robe that was hanging upon the high bedposts.  
  
It was the one his father would wear when he came in to check on them in the night while letting their mother sleep. It was dusty, but he touched it fondly and put it on, tying it about his waist. Thorin reached over and tapped his nephews on the forehead.

“AGH! Troll hammers in my head.” Kili winced. “Go ‘way! It’s too early for fighting trolls!”  
  
“Brother, why are you yelling?” Fili grumbled and pressed his forehead against the back of Gigi’s neck.  
  
“Don’t you hear the troll hammers? I have to yell over them.”  
  
“Aye… Those hammers are the worst.”  
  
“I assure you lads, the axes are much worse.” Bifur chuckled.

Fili managed to open one eye and saw not his brother beside him but his uncle’s wife. “AH!” he scrambled backwards and fell from the bed.  
  
“Careful, lad. Your stitchin’ won’t hold up to all this exertion.” Oin said, moving around to check on the older prince. “Kili’ll be fine. It will take a few days for his voice to get back to normal, but you don’t need me to tell you he’s on the mend.” Kili’s voice had been raspy, but it was much clearer than the days before where he could only speak in a choked whisper. Oin told Fili to get back into bed and that while it was okay for his brother to drink half a cask of whiskey with honey, it was not all right for him because he had a gut wound. He ordered him to stay in bed and let others care for him a few days.  
  
Fili would not get back in the bed though. He was convinced Thorin was going to murder him.

“I’m not going to kill you.” Thorin chuckled.  
  
All of the dwarves got a good laugh over Fili’s foolishness. They felt true reason for celebration to have this Thorin as their King. Never before would Thorin have been described as cheerful. The best they could expect was lightly amused. The lass had returned a laugh to him that most of them didn’t know he was missing.

Fili was finally convinced to lay back down, though he kept muttering, “Oh Mahal… I kissed her…”  
  
Kili let out a wheezing laugh. He was the most likely to have done such a foolish thing, but thank the Maker it was not him this time.  
  
They heard a great stomping of boots coming into the hall and a hushed call of “Thorin! Thorin!” Finally Dwalin came tearing into the bedchamber and with a great huffing and puffing he looked at Thorin and then Fili and Kili on either side of Gigi. He shook his head, his eyes wild. “That won’t do!” He flipped Kili off the side of the bed and reached over and pushed Fili off too.  
  
“Careful now, Dwalin!” Thorin ordered. “Fili is convalescing.”  
  
“Togi!” He said breathlessly grabbing Thorin’s shoulders and then took two deep breaths and said slower as if that would make more impact on Thorin, “General Togi.”  
  
Thorin’s brain processed this information slowly. Of course Togi would come, but he hadn’t expected so soon. He must have been with Dain’s army. General? He would have come with Dain’s dwarves. It would make sense now that Gigi would know Dain’s plans if she heard someone discussing with her brother.  
  
“Why are there so many dwarves in here?!” Dwalin sounded alarmed.  
  
“Door was open.” Nori answered, watching this all with great amusement. He’d never in his life seen Dwalin flustered or nervous.  
  
“I haven’t put a braid in her hair yet.” Thorin stammered.  
  
Dwalin turned and ripped a bead out of Thorin’s hair, taking a good chunk of hair with it. “HURRY. Do it and shut the door. He’ll be here any—”  
  
“ **Thorin II. Son of Thrain. Son of Thror.** ” The voice boomed from the doorway. General Togi was the same height as Dwalin, at least, with a wide barrel chest and the same red-gold hair as his sister only his had some white streaks that somehow only made him look more dangerous. “ **What are your intentions with my sister? Why are there so many dwarves in here?** ”

“Door was—” Nori began but got such a look of warning from Dori that he instantly shut up.

“Tea?” Dori offered from his tray as he stepped alongside Thorin, perhaps hoping to take some of the intensity out of the moment.

General Togi picked up the hot teapot in his hand and crushed it. The steam from the near to boiling water squeezing out between his fingers.

Dori let out a little squeak and backed away. “Well, I will take that as a no…”

 “ **What are your intentions with my sister?** ”

“Togi!” Gigi exclaimed as she stretched and yawned only finally waking.

Fili and Kili popped up between Thorin and Togi and bowed. “Fili. And Kili. At your service.”

“Are you our Uncle now too?” Kili asked with large excited eyes.

“I don’t think so.” Fili said. “I think he would be our cousin…”  
  
“But if Uncle is Mother’s brother then wouldn’t Gigi be her sister-in-law? And if mother’s brother’s wife is her sister, wouldn’t her sister’s brother be her brother too? That would make him our Uncle, wouldn’t it?” Kili reasoned.  
  
“Hmm, maybe you’re right…” Fili said, his brain still a little fuzzy from the previous night’s drinking.

“Why are there so many dwarves in here?” Gigi asked, rubbing her eyes.  
  
**“I want to know the same!”**

“Door was open.” Bofur grinned.

 “The door was closed after we entered.” Thorin and Gigi said at the same time only making things more apparent.

Thorin put his hands on Fili and Kili’s shoulders. “One of you opened the door and left it open, didn’t you?” Thorin asked quietly.

“I might have been the one to open the door, Uncle.” Fili confessed. “I wanted to make sure you were all right. You are wounded and all…”

“Thorin, are you hurt?” Gigi cried.  
  
“It’s not so bad as all that.” Thorin said, reassuring her.

“He could have died.” Kili rasped.  
  
“Ah!”  
  
“ **Enough. I’m takin’ my sister home. Out of my way, pipsqueak.** ” Togi ordered Thorin.  
  
“Did… Did he just call Thorin a pipsqueak?” Dori was greatly affronted.  
  
“No. She is home already. I made a promise to her that we would not be parted again and on my life I will not break it.”  
  
“Togi…” Gigi growled. “Don’t you dare!”  
  
General Togi clenched his massive fists and only glared at Thorin.  
  
“She is a reward greater than all my suffering and you will not take her from me.” Thorin insisted.  
  
“I will not leave him, brother.” Gigi said and then a little more gently, “I’m all right.”  
  
“ **Why couldn’t you have chosen the brainiac instead of this numbskull?** ” Togi waved his arm toward Balin indicating he would have been a more approved choice. “ **You’re way too good for him.** ”

“Like Rona?” Gigi asked softly and for a split second they could all see a change come over General Togi.  
  
Suddenly Togi grabbed Dwalin around the neck and dragged him out giving him noogies. “ **Love the tatts, chrome dome. Are they real or did you draw them on there yourself? HAHAHAA! Come on, let’s go spar!** ”

“Maybe after breakfast?” They heard Dwalin offer and then another booming musical laugh from Togi.  
  
“Does Mister Dwalin not realize they are the same size?” Kili asked.  
  
“No.” Thorin and Gigi said at the same time.  
  
“My brother’s older so Dwalin will always see him as that big brute that used to hold him down and make him eat bugs.” Gigi added.  
  
“Uh, should we go help Dwalin?” Fili asked.

“Nah,” Gigi replied. “It won’t hurt him to eat a few bugs. It’s all in good fun. They’re great friends.”  
  
“Uh…” Fili wasn’t so sure, but Thorin and Balin knew the dynamic and neither of them were making a move to rescue Dwalin either. It must be okay.  
  
Thorin sat on the edge of the bed and fell back with a deep breath. “I survived the dragon. I survived the Battle of the Five Armies. And I survived your brother.”  
  
Gigi laughed softly as she stroked his hair with her fingertips.  
  
“I’d say that calls for a drink, eh lads?!” Bofur called out as he rolled a keg in bringing Bilbo with him.  
  
“AYE!” They all cheered and Bombur came in with breakfast. Thorin just looked at Gigi and sighed, his plans postponed for the moment. Nori and Kili found two more full casks of wine and they tipped them on their sides and balancing on top they raced them from the kitchen to the bedroom tossing mugs back and forth and then into the door to any who didn’t yet have one, then raced back again. When they saw Bilbo, they started up a rousing chorus of That’s What Bilbo Baggins Hates. Bilbo was surprised to see Thorin who’d never heard the song join in and the female dwarf who appeared in a state of undress beneath the blankets wrapped around her also started singing the words with no prompting.  
  
“You’ll stay for the wedding, won’t you?” Thorin asked Bilbo as they both smoked their pipes while the others added new lines about spilling ash in bed to the song.  
  
“Wedding?” Bilbo asked.  
  
Thorin pointed with the end of his pipe to the dwarf lass and then to himself and smiled.  
  
Bilbo had never seen Thorin so merry and he nodded, though he was still not completely certain what had happened or how the girl had appeared and so suddenly engaged to Thorin. Dwarves had a bit of magic to them he would never understand, he supposed. He looked around and saw Dain and a good number of his dwarves as well.

“Why are there so many dwarves in here?” He asked.   
  
“DOOR WAS OPEN!” They all shouted.

 

 

(The End.)


End file.
